Kif is a country boy, an orphan whose longing for a life beyond the fields and byres leads him to join the Army. In the mud and agony of Flanders he meets and makes friends with a wider variety of people than he would ever have believed possible—including the Cockney 'Angel Carroll', destined to have a vital impact on Kif's life.

Josephine Tey's first book tells with moving simplicity the story of an innocent whose sufferings and poverty during the lean years after the First World War lead him gradually but inexorably into a life of crime, and so almost by accident—to his tragic end.